JMM MP quits party, seeks BJP membership

Medininagar (Jharkhand): JMM MP Kameshwar Baitha has quit the party and is seeking BJP membership.

"I have applied for BJP membership after meeting Arjun Munda yesterday... I am waiting for a positive reply from them," Baitha, who won the 2009 polls on JMM ticket, said here today.

Baitha, who lost the 2007 by-poll from Palamau LS seat on Bahujan Samaj Party`s ticket before winning it two years later, contested both the elections from Sasaram Jail, where he was lodged in connection with 55 Naxal-related cases.
Asked why he quit JMM which had helped him enter Parliament after he quit the ranks of CPI (Maoist), Baitha alleged, "There is no democracy in JMM."

On whether he would seek re-election from Palamau or elsewhere, Baitha said he was more concerned about joining BJP.
Meanwhile, JMM`s Palamau district president Rajendra Kumar Sinha hit back at Baitha and described his quitting the party as a "good riddance".

"He neither met people of his constituency nor held any meeting to listen to their grievances... There was resentment when he joined in 2009," Sinha claimed.

JMM`s district vice president Sanjiv Tiwari described Baitha as an opportunist.